Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

Someone seriously needs to check out the dude from that web Schume that is talking about Elisa like he knows her. The guy literally made someone go to a grave site to touch her gravestone for him and talked about her legacy like she was Kobe Bryant. Got bless her and rest her soul but some of these people for some real issues to have the time to act like their going thru this case like they were concerned for her when really it seems more like they used her story for clickbate and watch time. Was the story unique and intriguing, yes but these people must have ALOT of time on their hands to do all they did like they knew her.

What happened to Ms. Lam was a tragedy and this four-part series does, in the end, cover the incident well and offer a reasonable explanation. But what it also does, and I think this is the biggest take-away, is show how absurd and damaging some individuals on the internet can be. Individuals who describe themselves as "websleuths" and "YouTubers". These individuals imagine themselves trained investigators, they are not. They ascribe to themselves expertise that they do not possess. They make judgements and reach conclusions based on nothing more than emotion, conjecture and opinion, namely their own. In the law enforcement world we have a name for them; keyboard warriors. There are many of them out there because anyone with a computer and opposable thumbs can create their own blog and, sadly, attract followers who for reasons beyond me believe whatever nonsense these people spew out. This documentary profiles several of them, some in more depth than others but all of them come off in the end looking foolish. One of the problems is they don't acknowledge fault, they don't apologize, they just move on to their next "case". Here they throw out all kinds of unfounded accusations, without foundation or a shred of real proof, each one more absurd than the last. Unfortunately in one instance their "investigation" leads them to accuse an innocent man of murder which turns his life upside down. The term for this is cyber bullying and it has become all to common in our society. Yet not one of them is held accountable or even offers an apology. Were I him I would file lawsuits for libel against them, were I the LAPD I would do the same. But that doesn't happen and they simply move on with no accountability. I reached my frustration limit with these "investigators" in this program when Ms. Lam's autopsy report was finally released. Several of them appeared on their blogs stating that they had problems with it....really? Are you a pathologist? Were did you receive your medical degree? Do you have any idea at all what you're talking about? The answer sadly is no, they don't. But even more sad it that they have audiences that listen to them. My biggest problem while watching this documentary is that, even though in the end it exposes these people for what they are, I think it also gave them much too much screen time in the process. This roughly four hour series could have easily been trimmed by an hour by eliminating much of the time wasted showing these people spouting their various "theories". I do think the police, forensic physiatrist and the medical examiner, you know, the REAL experts, restrained themselves admirably in pointing out what these keyboard warriors really are. I actually wish they had been less so but I'm sure they thought the point had been made....I hope they're right. If someone describes themselves as a "websleuth" or a "YouTuber" please realized that what that really means is that they are just individuals who have no expertise or training or experience in....well pretty much anything at all...and are not individuals you want to listen to about anything, least of all something as serious as this. And to all those self appointed websleuths out there....have the intelligence to know what you don't know.

I will keep my review short. The story about the vanishing speaks to everybody's imagination. But the story is pretty straightforward, this is coming from somebody who has been working in psychiatry whole his life. She was bipolar and suffered clearly from a psychosis. I work with these people on a daily base. Yes, it can be so bad, people would bring themselves in strange situations. In that way 4 episodes is just too much for a story that could have been told in 2 episodes (at most).

I found this documentary much more interesting in another aspect. The way 8 years ago fake news was invented by stupid people on the internet just blowing their mind on things they have absolutely no knowledge about. I was heavily triggered by the youtubers/influencers claiming one stupid theory after the other. On the way almost destroying a young musician life. This is still the dark side of the internet and it saddens me to see where we are at almost a decade later.

The Elisa Lam story is both interesting and tragic. Aspects of this Documentary are interesting and well told but the grouping of YouTube numb skulls, spouting their conspiracies, drag it down. They are essentially just a bunch of self styled "internet sleuths", whose actual grasp on the events is as insignificant as they are. Everyone, up to and including Santa, comes under suspicion from these nitwits. They desperately want to include themselves in the drama of it all, and even go so far as to group at the Hotel to point and whisper.

All I can say is the trailer that Netflix produced for this was incredible, it drew me right in, you're sold the mystery of the infamous Cecil Hotel.

There's the side of it that really is tragic, the story of poor Elisa Lam, the scenes of her grieving family, and that pretty awful moment where she's last seen alive.

Part of me finds the whole thing a little tasteless, the poor girls story is sensationalised beyond belief, and some of the interviewees maybe should have had a bit more consideration for poor Elisa.

It's well made, it's well produced, but at just under four hours...... It could have been told in one, they really did drag this one out.

Very slow, pretty boring, and slightly tasteless I thought.

Poor, 4/10.